Nate.. just curious on your position...
Do you want the West Bank and Gaza returned immediately to the Palestinians, or the entirety of Israel?
As far as the history of the region, from what I understand, the land, prior to Jewish immigration in the late 1800s, was practically deserted save for Jerusalem (which was tiny itself). There was no development, no water, no trees, etc.
Jewish settlers developed "Palestine" and created jobs and industry relatively-speaking (since it's the turn of the 20th century) and attracted nomadic Arabs to settle near Jewish settlements to work in the new industries.
The whole area was British land at the time, as well, mind you.
Well, the number of Jewish settlers incoming was smaller than the numbers of Arabs reproducing in the area (and moving in). The newcomers simply squatted on the land around the developments and said "mine", since it had been conquered 1000+ years earlier by Muslims so it is Muslim land in aeternis; regardless of the fact that it was Ottoman territory won by British troops in time of war - meaning by the ultimate right, it was British land.
At the very least, it's not even remotely "Palestinian" land, since their only claim is the fact that they sat on it after european Jews came and started developing the area.
The British curtailed Jewish immigration into "Palestine" but did nothing to curtail Muslim squatters from expanding their settlements. About the same time, these squatters declared a holy right to the land and began an uprising against the British, who brutally suppressed them (Sharon has NOTHING on pre-WWII British colonial rulers).
After the holocaust, survivors were allowed to emigrate to Palestine, and afterwards the UN met to partition what was left of the British mandate (90% of the original mandate was given to the Hashemites, who lost a civil war with the Ibn Saud clan, losing control of what is now Saudi Arabia - the Hashemite clan were British vassals, and were rewarded with a homeland) into Jewish and Muslim areas.
But the Muslims were up in arms and declared holy struggle for everything, and got soundly defeated. In 1964, the PLO was formed to drive the Jews into the sea. Only the British-backed Jordanian troops were able to stop the enraged Jewish settlers at the "1967 border". Everybody else was defeated.
The neighboring Arab states exhorted the "Palestinians" to flee during the fighting, until all the Jews had been wiped out. Of course the neighbors didn't want them in *their* territory... As RebelKev alluded to, the Jordanians couldn't keep them out, because the Jordanians controlled the West Bank - as a result, Jordan is 80% Palestinian now, and that is probably why Syria, Egypt and Lebanon didn't want the refugees in their country.
And, as a post script, the tired war horse of moral equivalency, "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter" is a load of dung. Freedom fighters don't target civilians. Period. Ever.
George Washington did not burn down the homes of tories in the Revolutionary War. Patrick Henry did not say "Agree with me, or I'll
Give You Death". Innocent Londoners did not burst into flame from bombs and incendiary devices lobbed by American "freedom fighters". Americans hit British bases, British government supply ships, warehouses, fortresses, warships, etc- always striking the government and military, never the people.
Terrorists are evil criminals, never freedom fighters. The cowardly mass murderers go where they think no one can defend themselves, using the cover of civilization to slaughter innocents. And they rationalize it with rhetoric - "Anyone who supports the Israeli regime (read - participates in Israeli society) is a military target".... the personal is the political, yadda yadda.
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